Conventional processes for punching holes through a material typically involve feeding the material, for example steel, into a punch apparatus until the material is in the desired position. The feed of the material is then stopped and the punch apparatus is then operated to form the hole. The process is then repeated until all of the desired holes have been produced in the predetermined locations with the required spacing between adjacent holes along the length of the material.
The process is therefore time consuming and requires the spacing between each punched hole to be accurately measured and the position of the material within the apparatus to be adjusted accordingly. The process becomes particularly complex and time consuming when the punch apparatus is being used to form irregular punching patterns along the length of the material.